Athens Utilities customers have a new option when it comes to paying their bill. The company has added kiosks on the inside and outside of its South Jefferson Street location which customers can use for the monthly task.

Customer Accounts Manager Regina Rager said Athens Utilities added the kiosks a couple of months ago to mixed reviews form the public.

“Some people love them, and some not,” she said. “We put up directions beside the kiosks, and we hope to get a QR code working in the next month or so, which will make it even easier to use.”

Utilities customers currently have the option to pay in person or at a drive-thru for no fee. They can also set up an automatic monthly draft at no charge, which processes the day before the bill’s due date.

There is an online bill-pay option, which does require a fee because the company that the City of Athens uses for the process requires one.

Rager said customers can also set up bill pay through their personal banks. She said she believes the kiosks will become more popular as customers get used to them, the QR codes are added and any early bugs get worked out.

“When you use the kiosks, you get a receipt, and the payment posts to the account immediately,” she said. “You put in the info for the account you want to pay for, so you know it is the correct one. Not everyone is going to like or want to use them, but the online system and mailing aren’t for everyone, either.”

Rager said a complaint that some customers have had lately has been the discontinued use of the night dropbox by Athens Utilities. She said some people liked to be able to make the drop after hours and go, but the company was running into the issue of people dropping cash with incomplete information and having to work to figure out whose payment it was.

Processing these payments and having to sometimes track down who they came from proved time-consuming, so the decision was made to nix the option altogether.

“If anybody wants to come in, we will be more than happy to show people how to use the kiosks,” Rager said. “We are always here for our customers, and anything we can we will help them with.”